Microsoft to invest $75 million in computer science education

Microsoft is investing $75 million over a three-year period to help make computer science more mainstream in schools.

Microsoft plans to give $75 million to nonprofits that can spread computer science education throughout the world, CEO Satya Nadella said on Wednesday during Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.

The investment is part of the company’s YouthSpark initiative to promote computer science education it originally launched back in 2012.

Microsoft will divvy out the money over a three-year period to select programs, including the company’s Technology Education and Literacy in Schools program, in which technology workers partner up with high schools to teach computer science to their students.

The goal of the investment is to make computer science as important of a subject as math or physics in schools, which have long been core subjects.

“Computational thinking will be in every aspect of our economy,” Nadella said.